378 THE SEAL. 



goes with as high a conceit of himself as any Mr. Captain 

 in his ship. When he spies the Seal he tries to surprise it 

 unawares with the wind and sun in his back, that he may 

 not be heard or seen. He makes hastily, but softly, to- 

 wards it, till he reaches within four or six fathoms. He 

 then takes hold of the oar in his left hand, and the har- 

 poon with his right, and so away he throws it at the Seal. 

 The moment the instrument is fixed, the Greenlander must 

 throw the attached buoy into the water on the same side 

 that the Seal dives, for that he does instantly like a dart. 

 The Seal often draws the buoy along with it under water, 

 and it so wearies itself, that it must come up again, in 

 about a quarter of an hour, to take breath. The Green- 

 lander now hastes to smite il with his long lance ; thus he 

 keeps darting at it till it is quite spent, when he kills it 

 outright with his small lance ; lastly, he blows it up like a 

 bladder, that it may swim the more easily after his Kajak. 

 In this exercise he is exposed to the most and greatest 

 danger of his life. For if the line should entangle itself, 

 as it easily may in its sudden and violent motion, or if it 

 should catch hold of the Kajak, or of an oar, or the hand, 

 or even the neck, as it sometimes does in wincty weather, 

 or if the seal should turn suddenly to the other side of the 

 boat, it cannot be otherwise than that the Kajak must be 

 overturned, and drawn down under water. On such des- 

 perate occasions the poor Greenlander stands in need of 

 all his art to disentangle himself from the string, and raise 

 himself up from under water several times successively. 

 Nay, when he imagines himself out of all danger, and 

 comes too near the dying Seal, it may still attack him ; 

 and a female Seal that has young, instead of flying the 

 lield, will sometimes fly at its pursuer in the most vehe- 

 ment rage, and do him a mischief, or bite a hole in his 

 Kajak, that he must sink. 



Color, in the present instance, appears lo be a cha- 

 racter of little value ; for, in the many specimens I have 



